Media Relations Post Is Created

The University has initiated a nationwide search for its first communications director, a new post created to determine and implement the communications goals of the University.

The new officer will provide the University with another spokesperson for outside media, complementing acting Director of the News Office Joe Wrinn and Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs James H. Rowe III' 73.

The communications director will be charged with developing a plan to coordinate more closely University wide communications endeavors, according to a job description in this week's Harvard Gazette.

The director will also participate in University policy questions that deal with matters of public interest, and will serve as a spokesperson on such issues as required.

Another important responsibility for the communications director will involve taking steps to deliver more favorable news about Harvard to the outside world.

The News Office already works hard to present Harvard's most attractive visage. For example, it provides TV reporters with live hookups from atop the Holyoke Center so that stations do not have to bring their own satellite trucks.

"The pattern of [Harvard's] profile, attracting more criticism than fanfare, the fact that we are in an era of anti-institutional times...[means] we have to be more affirmative in putting out the good news that happens on a daily basis to the outside world," Rowe said.

The specific responsibilities of the communications director haven't been hashed out fully at this point, according to Rowe and Wrinn.

But the new director will free up both administrators to tackle other issues.

"It's my clear anticipation that Joe Wrinn will continue in that office handling the external media work, and hopefully he, with another high-level person, will have a chance to work with some of the high-level media issues," Rowe said in an interview yesterday.

"This will allow somebody as talented as Joe Wrinn to work on long-term issues such as media technology," Rowe said.

A Busy Year

Harvard has received an unusual amount of national attention in the past calendar year, thanks to media interest in the surprise resignation of Leverett Professor of Inter-Faculty Teaching and Research Jerry R. Green as provost, the mysterious three-month medical leave of President Neil L. Rudenstine and the decision to rescind an offer of admission made to Gina Grant when the College learned that she had killed her mother in 1990, among other matters.

But the University's media relations team has been criticized for bungling each of those affairs.

Upon Rudenstine's return, for example, the president ended up on the cover of Newsweek as a poster-child for exhaustion.

More directly, a New York Times staff editorial blasted the University's news operation as "Primitive" for its handlingof the Gina Grant case.

Rowe denied in an interview yesterday that thenew post was a reaction to the unusual volume ofnews this year, or the criticism the Universityhas drawn for its public affairs operation.

On the contrary, Rowe said, the communicationsdirector was an idea he had discussed withRudenstine as early as his interview for the vicepresidency last April.

"I would flatly deny that it has anything to dowith anything that happened this year." Rowe saidof the new post, adding that he has the highestregard for the current news staff.

"It's a situation regarding [workload] ratherthan personnel," Rowe added. "I think that we getmore inquiries than any other University in thecountry, and there is no normal week at Harvard."

Wrinn agreed.

"That component of this job [fieldinginquiries] takes up the majority of my time, evenbefore you start talking about communications andaffirmative interaction with the press," he said.

Still, the new communications director will adda third layer to the Harvard media team, one thatisn't present even at other schools of similarstature.

For example, MIT has a director of publicrelations services and a director of its newsoffice, but nothing analogous to a vice presidentof communication, according to Robert C. Dilorio,associate director of the MIT news office.

And Yale University's communications affairsare handled largely by Gary G. Fryer, whose titleis director of public affairs and specialassistant to the president, according to TomConroy, who is assistant director of the office ofpublic affairs.

The job description requires candidates to havea "minimum of 15 years of communications/publicaffairs experience preferable in a complex anddecentralized environment requiring skill in bothjournalism and advocacy."

Rowe said he hopes to have the newcommunications director in place by the beginningof the next academic year.

Jonathan N. Axelrod contributed to thereporting of this story.

Rowe denied in an interview yesterday that thenew post was a reaction to the unusual volume ofnews this year, or the criticism the Universityhas drawn for its public affairs operation.

On the contrary, Rowe said, the communicationsdirector was an idea he had discussed withRudenstine as early as his interview for the vicepresidency last April.

"I would flatly deny that it has anything to dowith anything that happened this year." Rowe saidof the new post, adding that he has the highestregard for the current news staff.

"It's a situation regarding [workload] ratherthan personnel," Rowe added. "I think that we getmore inquiries than any other University in thecountry, and there is no normal week at Harvard."

Wrinn agreed.

"That component of this job [fieldinginquiries] takes up the majority of my time, evenbefore you start talking about communications andaffirmative interaction with the press," he said.

Still, the new communications director will adda third layer to the Harvard media team, one thatisn't present even at other schools of similarstature.

For example, MIT has a director of publicrelations services and a director of its newsoffice, but nothing analogous to a vice presidentof communication, according to Robert C. Dilorio,associate director of the MIT news office.

And Yale University's communications affairsare handled largely by Gary G. Fryer, whose titleis director of public affairs and specialassistant to the president, according to TomConroy, who is assistant director of the office ofpublic affairs.

The job description requires candidates to havea "minimum of 15 years of communications/publicaffairs experience preferable in a complex anddecentralized environment requiring skill in bothjournalism and advocacy."

Rowe said he hopes to have the newcommunications director in place by the beginningof the next academic year.

Jonathan N. Axelrod contributed to thereporting of this story.